A Touch of Death
by homestuckingit
Summary: Kankri had enough of being told to shut up. So he did. With his hand full of pills.
1. 1

Hazel eyes drift open to see a white room, beeping sounds all around him; his head throbbed in pain as he tried to figure out where he was. He heard distant voices and a grip on his hand, Karkat was holding his hand and shouting for a nurse it seems. Last he remembers he took loads of sleeping pills to try and get away from it all, to leave and never come back, obviously that didn't work when the doctor came in to speak with him.

Apparently Kankri was a very lucky person for living through what he had just put his body through, also he had to be on suicide watch for a couple of weeks until he is stabilized, plus therapy to see if people can help with anything that has been bothering him. As if the agonizing pain of reality wasn't enough for him, he was told he would be back to normal in a number of months. Asshole.

Once the doctor had left, Karkat had hugged him so tightly, crying on his shoulder and telling him how much of an idiot he was for going through all the pain alone and not talking to anyone or reaching out for help. You just stare ahead of you and hope that this is purgatory, hope that you are just living through the bad effects of death and it will pass, then you can rest peacefully.

If anything was to go by, it was the chilling ache of his stomach; he wasn't allowed to eat because it would just upset his stomach more so he was given disgusting smoothies to keep the nutrients flowing in his body. Karkat came to visit every day, making sure he was slurping up that vile mix of protein.

He was feeling better, psychically. Not much to go on upstairs though; he still felt the same, like the world was against him, by this time he had been in this room for a number of days, maybe four, he didn't have a calendar. He knew the nurses routines inside and out; they would wake him up around eight in the morning for a morning check, then give him a smoothie to get him through for a few hours, in which there was no doctors or nurses, at ten was when the visitors were allowed to come in and see him, though it wasn't much because Karkat couldn't come in until school was over.

Around noon, a nurse would come in to attempt a small counseling session to see if he was going to actually respond. He never did. After giving him another smoothie, they left him alone for a couple of hours, that is where Karkat would come in to stay with him, doing homework to pass the time; his little brother knew when not to speak when it got serious. The visitors had to go home around five so he couldn't stay long.

They let him go to bed early, normally around eight or nine depending on if a nurse wanted to speak with him. All this time, Kankri was thinking about a plan to escape, or at least open the window so he could end his life quickly this time. Unfortunately there was someone always outside his door in case he got up or wanted someone immediately. Kankri knew that it was just for his safety, the hospital doesn't want a suicide to clean up.

It didn't help at all that the room kept getting really cold at night, normally around ten in the evening when there was no noise but footsteps from nurses going up and down the halls, the blinking light from the bright hallways beaming through the doors window in Kankri's room. He complained about it the next day and the nurse had turned up the heater in the room, yet still at ten at night it would go deathly cold. Kankri breathed out a sigh of frustration and a puff of steam blew out his mouth, his frowned hard and wrapped himself up in the thin sheets of the hospital beds but it wouldn't do anything.

He let out an angered huff and rolled over in the uncomfortable bed, only to have blank eyes staring into his now terrified ones.


	2. 2

Kankri just about covered his mouth before he could scream in terror.

He couldn't do anything; it was like he was frozen by that look staring back at him, at the dead eyes in front of him. The thing in front of him was radiating such cold air, he knew that it had been here a while and the heater wasn't broken; it was just the thing in front of him. He wanted to speak but his voice was caught in his throat, the thing looked like his age, but he was so pale, his eyes blank; no pupils. Its hair was wavy but Kankri saw how it looked like it was attempting to be gelled back, it was just wearing a hospital gown but it was super clean, not a spec of anything on it.

The thing moved once it noticed that it had Kankri's attention, it stood up properly and almost smiled. Now that it was standing upright he could see how its neck had a thick purple ring around, the sudden thought came to Kankri; this could be a dead person. He did believe in life after death and the supernatural, he watched all those tv shows about how houses were haunted and exorcists would come and peacefully let them go to the other side.

But he had never seen a ghost before; this was both exciting and shocking. It wasn't hard to believe that were ghosts in a hospital because hello? Loads of people die here, there's a whole set of rooms just for people who are going to die soon. The facts were that there was someone, even if they were dead, was waiting on him to do something.

So he did, he sat up a little and pushed the pillow further up so he could get comfortable. "Hello?"

The ghost moved forward, making Kankri scoot back on the bed, apparently this was an invitation to the pale boy as he sat on the corner of the bed, watching him. It seems it had taken a liking to him so it was now his responsibility to make sure this ghost gets to the other side peacefully. "Um so… What do you want?"

The ghost didn't say anything, just simply stared ahead blankly but it lifted their hand and rubbed its neck. It wasn't helping at all, so Kankri started to investigate by looking at all the features of the ghost, making assumptions. There was what looked like a rope mark so maybe it was strangled? Maybe it had a suicide too and actually died instead of wake up in a stupid suicide watch. "Okay nod for yes, shake for no. Do understand me?"

The ghost was blank for a moment and Kankri was expecting he was just talking to himself for a moment but it suddenly nodded, alright at least it could understand him and he wasn't just being crazy. Maybe he was, who cares, he was bored shitless in this hospital and even a ghost that he possibly made up would be enough to pass the time. "Do you remember anything before dying?"

A shake, so it didn't remember anything, maybe that's why it was pestering him? Maybe it wanted to know what happened so it could get some clear mind about what happened so he could leave Kankri the hell alone. "Alright… You don't know anything about what happened, can you please just, you know, leave? For now?"

The ghost boy just stood there before shuffling around, looking down and to Kankri, the guy seemed embarrassed. Huh. "What? Why are you looking like that?"

Kankri was getting a bit shaken up, he didn't know what the ghost wanted, why it was here and the ghost apparently didn't know why it was here either so that just made matters worse. The ghost slumped his head in defeat and spoke softly, croaky, almost like his vocal cords had been heavily abused.

"I don't know how to leave."


End file.
